"Inoculated against what?" you may ask. Inoculated against leftist lunacy! As a proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, I am, and perhaps, with time and study, you can be, too.
This blog covers whatever the team members feel like writing about.
My own interests include many areas --- animals, the veterinary profession, the U.S. Navy, conservatism, sourdough baking, computing (Windows and Linux), music, humor, quotations, gas prices, and anything else that catches my attention.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Al Gore's recent jeremiad may not have persuaded anyone who is not already a mindless GlobAL Warming myrmidon, but it did accomplish one thing: it has inspired the editorial cartoonists to take a fresh look at him. First, there's this light-hearted swipe from Chip Bok:

Michael Ramirez, the superb editorial cartoonist who was signally honored by being summarily dismissed from the Los Angeles Times, then immediately hired by Investor's Business Daily, has weighed in on Obama's Berlin speech.

(No doubt, if he had still been working for the Los Angeles Times, this cartoon would have gotten him fired. Fortunately, his present employer is far more appreciative of his incomparable talent.)

"The arrogance of the young is a direct result of not having known enough consequences. The turkey that every day greedily approaches the farmer who tosses him grain is not wrong. It is just that no one ever told him about Thanksgiving."

Sunday, July 27, 2008

For an excellent overall view of the carbon controversy, read "The Carbon Curtain" in Forbes.com, by Peter Huber. He brings a welcome dose of common sense to the discussion, commencing with this introductory paragraph:

What we really need from the climate modelers is an accurate 50-year projection of global politics. Will people believe the computer's dire prophecy enough to change their lifestyles? While we wait for 50 million lines of code to reveal the supposed future, consider how things look to one very knowledgeable energy analyst, Vinod K. Dar, who runs Dar & Company, a consultant to the energy industry, in Bethesda, Md. What follows is my own gloss on Dar's analysis. Everything he says, however, squares with all that I've seen and learned in the 30 years I've watched energy markets here and abroad.

Huber maintains that regardless of what the developed nations do, the developing nations – those on the other side of The Carbon Curtain – will do whatever they must in order to lift their populations out of poverty. Practical political considerations will force their leaders to pursue aggressive, energy-intensive pro-growth policies if they wish to remain in power:

No serious student of global politics can accept the notion that the world will soon join ranks behind Brussels, Washington and the gloomy computer and its minders. Dar is surely right when he says, "The U.S. and Japan will not tell Asia and Africa to choose poverty, disease, hunger and illiteracy over electricity." Europe might, but nobody will listen. It won't have moral authority until its own citizens are emitting less carbon than Bangladeshis. That won't happen soon.

In other words, those of us who dismiss the overheated blatherings of Al Gore, James Hansen, et al, are likely to be proven correct. Whatever happens, whether the earth warms, cools, or remains exactly where it is, we'll deal with it. After all, we're humans, and that's what humans do.

We use our innate intelligence to solve problems, Each of our generations builds upon the accomplishments of those who came before. As a result, we have managed to raise our living standard to levels undreamed of by even the wealthiest and most powerful of our ancestors.

To the human intellect, Global Warming, if it exists at all, is just one more in a never-ending series of challenges which we have successfully overcome. Why should anyone doubt that we will somehow be able to cope with whatever the future may bring?

"For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other. Besides, we don't have any other prospects."

"But we're issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who've been denied equal protection under the law. If you are not gay, you can get married to a woman."

"Wait a minute. A gay man has the same right to marry a woman as I have. But just because I'm straight doesn't mean I want to marry a woman. I want to marry Jim."

"And I want to marry Tim, Are you going to discriminate against us just because we are not gay?"

"All right, all right. I'll give you your license. Next."

"Hi. We are here to get married."

"Names?"

"John Smith, Jane James, Robert Green, and June Johnson."

"Who wants to marry whom?"

"We all want to marry each other."

"But there are four of you!"

"That's right. You see, we're all bisexual. I love Jane and Robert, Jane loves me and June, June loves Robert and Jane, and Robert loves June and me. All of us getting married together is the only way that we can express our sexual preferences in a marital relationship."

"But we've only been granting licenses to gay and lesbian couples."

"So you're discriminating against bisexuals!"

"No, it's just that, well, the traditional idea of marriage is that it's just for couples."

"Since when are you standing on tradition?"

"Well, I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere."

"Who says? There's no logical reason to limit marriage to couples. The more the better. Besides, we demand our rights! The mayor says the constitution guarantees equal protection under the law. Give us a marriage license!"

"All right, all right. Next."

"Hello, I'd like a marriage license."

"In what names?"

"David Deets."

"And the other man?"

"That's all. I want to marry myself."

"Marry yourself? What do you mean?"

"Well, my psychiatrist says I have a dual personality, so I want to marry the two together. Maybe I can file a joint income tax return."